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Overview

Fans of Go Ask Alice will devour Dear Nobody, a real teen's diary, so raw and so edgy that it's authenticity rings off every page.

They say that high school is supposed to be the best time of your life. But what if that's just not true?

More than anything, Mary Rose wants to fit in. To be loved. And she'll do whatever it takes to make that happen. Even if it costs her her life.

Told through the raw and unflinching diary entries of a real teen, Mary Rose struggles with addiction, bullying, and a deadly secret. Her compelling story will inspire readers—and remind them that they are not alone.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

02/17/2014
Between the ages of 15 and 18, until her death in 1999 of cystic fibrosis, a Pennsylvania teenager named Mary Rose wrote unguardedly in her journals. McCain and McNeil (co-editors of Please Kill Me: An Oral History of Punk) offer a condensed but otherwise unaltered version of her diary entries and the occasional letter. Despite any ethical issues raised by publishing the book, which Mary Rose’s mother touches on in an afterword, Mary Rose’s writing has an immediate and viscerally raw impact as she describes her fights with her mother, a magnet for abusive, criminal boyfriends; her own tempestuous experiences with romance, sex, alcohol, and drugs; and the agony of cystic fibrosis. “I definitely won’t binge anymore,” writes Mary Rose after one rehab stint. “HA! That resolution lasted three days!” opens the next entry. Mary Rose’s enormous pain and the ways she attempts to swallow it are evident in every profane, rage-filled entry; while her anguish is near-constant, it’s spiked with moments of biting humor, elation, and hope. It’s a rare, no-holds-barred documentation of an American teenager’s life, written for no audience but herself. Ages 14–up. (Apr.)

From the Publisher

"The writing style has a beautiful lyricism...Readers will appreciate this unflinchingly honest work." - School Library Journal

"Mary Rose's diary is a heart-wrenching tale of a young girl trying to figure everything out...It will appeal to teens." - VOYA

VOYA, June 2014 (Vol. 37, No. 2)
- Loryn Aman

For all of Mary Rose’s short life, things have been difficult. Her mother has abusive boyfriends; she cannot seem to make and keep friends; and on top of everything else, she has cystic fibrosis. In her diary entries, Mary Rose tells the story that she feels no one cares to hear. Drug and alcohol abuse, run-ins with the law, rehab, extended hospital stays, and rape are all part of Mary Rose’s life. She knows that her lifestyle is not healthy, and she should want to be sober, yet she continues to make choices that inhibit her from reaching that goal. This true story of fifteen-year-old Mary Rose is, at times, shocking and also incredibly sad. Her home life is awful, to say the least; her mother is constantly bringing home men that both physically and mentally abuse everyone in the house, and Mary Rose even writes about drinking and getting high with her mother from time to time. Outside of home, Mary Rose seeks attention from boys, seeming to fall in love every time she meets someone new. Eventually she gets into a relationship with Geoff, an older man who does not treat her well and, in some ways, almost mirrors her mother’s relationships. Mary Rose’s diary is a heart-wrenching tale of a young girl trying to figure everything out. She is very sick, and one of the ways that she copes with her sickness is by drinking and doing drugs. She is stuck in a cycle of unhealthy decisions that eventually take her life. There are many instances of foul language, adult themes, and drug use and abuse throughout this book. It will appeal to teens, regardless of those issues. Reviewer: Loryn Aman; Ages 15 to 18.

School Library Journal

04/01/2014
Gr 9 Up—In this actual, posthumously published diary, the teenager is brutally honest about her problems with her mom and her mom's abusive boyfriend, her sexual encounters, and her addictions to alcohol and drugs. Lonely and looking for relationships, the girl begins every entry with "Dear Nobody." Readers learn early on about Mary's stints in rehab, but it is a third of the way into the book when it is revealed that she has cystic fibrosis. Mary Rose has been in and out of the hospital all her life with this disease, but she doesn't dwell on it. Like the fictional Go Ask Alice (Prentice Hall, 1971), this is a first-person account of a girl detailing the poor choices she has made. Though a depressing picture emerges, the writing style has a beautiful lyricism. Teens may not understand Mary Rose's decisions, and they may dislike how those who care about her treat her, but readers will appreciate this unflinchingly honest work.—Elizabeth Kahn, Patrick F. Taylor Science & Technology Academy, Jefferson, LA

Kirkus Reviews

2014-02-26
The posthumous memoir of a drug-abusing teen who died of cystic fibrosis. Living in suburban Pennsylvania in the late 1990s, Mary Rose uses her journal, addressed to "Dear Nobody," to chronicle her daily life: She's bored, frequently on the outs with her mom and searching for something. She hangs out at the nearby rope swing with other teens, drinking and doing drugs, getting arrested and hoping to find a friend—or even better, a boyfriend. But things change when Mary Rose has to deal with something she isn't facing head-on: She suffers from cystic fibrosis, and her condition is deteriorating due to her drinking and drug use. Mary Rose attempts to turn over a new leaf only to fall back into drinking and suffers a new tragedy. Yet through it all, as her body begins to give out, Mary Rose strives for peace through religion and searches for a connection with other people. Edited from Mary Rose's journals after her death, this memoir necessarily suffers from the absence of an authorial hand, shifting abruptly from Mary Rose's party-girl ways to her medical suffering. Mary Rose evidently never had a chance to reflect on the total arc of her written narrative, forcing readers to glean meaning from the disparate, angst-filled entries or just go with the flow. While the voice is authentic, this book is an experience, not a crafted narrative. (Memoir. 14-18)

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Someone help. Anybody, somebody, everybody, nobody? Mary Rose

Someone help. Anybody, somebody, everybody, nobody? Mary Rose was fifteen when she wrote this journal and whether she intended for anyone to read it or not, the pain is real, almost too real unless you know her circumstances. Her pain comes from a variety of sources, internally and externally and when she writes the messages is clear, she’s hurting. Mary Rose suffered from cystic fibrosis, from sexual and abusive relationships, from alcoholism, from drug addiction and from parents who just didn’t care. To hear her story, you have to be strong, you have to want to hear her message or otherwise you won’t understand it. Her message is that she wants help and she wants to be loved. I am attracted to these types of books; they scream at me, they pull everything out of me and yank at my soul, dragging me to feel the emotions and the thoughts those individuals experience. Sometimes I am left drained and other times, I am left feeling invigorated and with Mary Rose I am left standing in the middle. Mary Rose felt abandoned by her mother as her mother chose her abusive boyfriend over her own daughter. This on-and-off relationship coupled with screaming matches often left Mary Rose alone and scared. Alcohol and drugs were a great coping mechanism which lasted only as long as the high lasted. Friends, money and school all come into the picture and it becomes a balancing act with some things being cast aside when things get too complicated. Mary Rose is on a first-name basis with the police and her scars don’t just come from the treatments from her disease. So many times she tries to handle life but it just becomes too difficult for her on her own, so she copes the best that she can with what she is given and what she knows.

So many times Mary Rose states that she is going to get her life back in order, yet she slides right back into the world of destruction. Even after many attempts of rehab, hospitals, jail and whatnot, she is placed right back into the same environment and life goes right back to what she wants to avoid. You can hear her pain in her writing with her capital letters, her slang, her choice of words and her drawings so I know I was not imagining what I was feeling. The drawings were terrific and the pictures she drew of herself, the eyes shaded so deep and dark. The constant repeating of her own image in her drawings, I enjoyed that. She’s digging herself into a hole yet she doesn’t have the resources to pull herself out. “I’d peel off the label like I was unwrapping a present. I felt secure with alcohol, like I had finally found my home.” I highlighted so many parts of this book, so many great parts and parts I want to go back and read. I especially liked the part where Mary Rose listed the different friends you have for the different fights you have with those friends. Mary Rose coupled this with each substance you were on at the time of the fight (alcohol or a list of drugs M.R. was experienced in). Being an expert on each different type of drug and an expert drunk, she had this down and it was quite interesting and detailed. I want to buy this book as some of the pictures didn’t show up on my Kindle version so I know I was missing something and I know I will definitely want to read this again. This is a powerful book with strong language and strong subject matter which should only read by mature readers.Thank you NetGalley for supplying me a copy of this book to review.

“It took me to heaven, but left me in hell.” (Talking about alcohol)

“OhmyGod, you’re right! I AM A FREAK! Guess that makes me different. Okay wait, what if I would take them into my living room and show them the three big, loud machines that “keep me breathing”? Do you have big loud machines in your living room that keep you breathing? No? Didn’t think so. Oh, wait, I’ve got them! How about next time I sweat I show them how salt crystals….” (People call her a freak and sometimes she just wishes she could tell them what her life is really like)

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted October 13, 2014

who are you?
Are you nobody too?
Who would believe the story of

who are you?Are you nobody too?

Who would believe the story of a little nobody.

I personally love this book, I just started reading it yesterday and I'm a quarter way in and I can't stop turning the page. Not a thiriller so far but deffinitly a learning experiance. I can relate in some ways to the character, a good book if you liked The CellarStolen The Perks of Being a WallflowerGive it a go, it's an easy read.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 15, 2014

Fantastic! To sandy5

Hi.i honestly this was agreat book.the inly rrason i read it tough wss because sandy5's discription.it was a great self connection and summery andi am highly thankful for that.warning for this book.yiu may start to cry onalmosr evry page.you were warned!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose is the real, gritty, an

Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose is the real, gritty, and honest diary of the teenage lost soul, Mary Rose.

Mary Rose totally got the short end of the stick. She has an absent father, a not-so-fabulously-behaved mother, and her mother’s boyfriend is abusive. Mary Rose also happens to have cystic fibrosis and seems to have a hard time making friends. So what does Mary Rose do?

She turns to drugs and alcohol, the only things that will make her feel normal and “fit in” with the crowd. But of course, addiction isn’t known to solve many people’s problems.

Dear Nobody is addicting to read – I could not put it down, and didn’t, until I was finished. It was heart-wrenching and devastating at times.

With that said, the book fell a little flat for me. I know it sounds strange since it’s a true story, all in Mary Rose’s real diary entries, but I wasn’t as emotionally hooked onto Mary Rose as I expected to be.

Have you read books like this, like Go Ask Alice or something similar?

Thanks for reading,

Rebecca @ Love at First Book

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted October 24, 2014

Very good book

Very good book

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 19, 2014

A

Amazinh

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Anonymous

Posted June 30, 2014

Eh

I got bored

0 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted June 29, 2014

Pink ipad

Kiss your hand 3 times and post this on three others and look under your pillow

0 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

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